‘Super Sized Salon’ star, Jamie Lopez, dead at 37

Jamie Lopez, the driving force behind Babydoll Beauty Couture and star of “Super Sized Salon” has died … TMZ has learned.

Sources close to Lopez tell us she’d been hospitalized in Las Vegas and died over the weekend as a result of heart complications. A rep for BBC said in a statement, “We regretfully announce, with great pain, the passing of The Founder & Owner of Babydoll Beauty Couture, The Legendary Jamie Lopez. We ask, on behalf of the Babydoll family, that you allow us time to process this tremendous loss.”

Babydoll Beauty Couture was founded to service plus-sized women … and “Super Sized Salon” — which premiered earlier this year on WE tv — highlighted both the salon’s staff and customers. We are told she was just about to begin filming for season 2.

Known for his dour image and sharp wit, the singer found fame in the 1970s and 80s with hits like Ghost Town, Gangsters and Too Much Too Young.

He left The Specials in 1981 to form Fun Boy Three with fellow-bandmates Neville Staple and Lynval Golding, scoring another run of hits.

The singer died after a brief illness, The Specials said in a statement. The musician was born in 1959 and raised in Coventry, where most of his family worked in the city’s then-booming car industry.

But his life took a dark turn when, at the age of 12, he was kidnapped by a teacher.

“I was abducted, taken to France and sexually abused for four days,” he told The Spectator in 2019. “And then punched in the face and left on the roadside.”

Hall said the incident left him with life-long depression and caused him to drop out of education at the age of 14, after becoming addicted to the Valium he had been prescribed.

“I didn’t go to school, I didn’t do anything. I just sat on my bed rocking for eight months.”

Music was some form of solace; and Hall joined a local punk band called Squad, receiving his first writing credit on their single Red Alert.

He was spotted by The Specials’ Jerry Dammers, who recruited him as a frontman by deploying a terrible pun.

“He worked in a stamp shop” the musician told Mojo magazine. “I told him, Philately will get you nowhere'”.

After gaining a fearsome live reputation at home, the band rose to national prominence after Radio 1’s John Peel played their debut single, Gangsters, on his show.

The song – a tribute to Prince Buster’s ska classic Al Capone – established the band and their record label 2-Tone as a major force in British music.

They were a multi-racial group, documenting the turbulent Thatcher years by playing songs directly indebted to Jamaican ska – a pre-reggae style that remained popular in Britain’s West Indian communities.

The beauty salon confirmed the news via an Instagram post on Monday, sharing a carousel of photos of Lopez and cast members of the show.

“On behalf of the Babydoll Beauty Couture team, we regretfully announce, with great pain, the passing of The Founder & Owner of Babydoll Beauty Couture, The Legendary Jamie Lopez,” the company shared in the caption. “We ask, on behalf of the Babydoll family, that you allow us time to process this tremendous loss. Further details and arrangements will be announced soon.”

The statement continued, “We have suffered an extraordinary loss and appreciate the time and space to grieve in peace. Please keep our Babydoll family & team lifted in your hearts and prayers. We’d like to thank the staff & crew of @matadorcontent & @wetv for all their continuous support in this difficult time. Sincerely, Team Jamie.”

According to TMZ, the reality star suffered heart complications over the weekend. The outlet also reported Lopez was preparing to film season 2 at the time of her death.

PEOPLE has reached out to Lopez’s representatives for comment. Season 1 of the WE tv show debuted this summer and documented Lopez’s journey to build and design her beauty salon based in Las Vegas, Nevada, which specifically caters to all bodies. The series also chronicled her weight loss and her journey of learning how to walk again after losing 400 pounds. Lopez shared in the trailer of the show that she weighed 846 pounds at one point in her life.

Speaking to Yahoo Beauty in 2017, Lopez opened up about her reason to launch her business.

“I was inspired by there being no place I could get my nails or hair done in Vegas that would accommodate my needs as a plus-size woman, and I decided it was time to make some changes for the plus-size women of the world,” she told the outlet at the time.